The North Korea summit appears to have fallen through. Trump wrote a letter to Kim Jong Un and canceled the meet this morning.
This is not a shocking turn of events. This meeting was never going to happen. At best, this is Trump canceling the meeting before Kim Jong Un could, in an attempt to make it look like a win for Trump.
Reading Material
- Bloomberg: Trump Cancels Summit With North Korea’s Kim, Citing ‘Hostility’
- The Atlantic: Donald Trump’s Strange Letter to Kim Jong Un
- NPR: Trump Cancels Summit With North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un
- Politico: Trump calls off historic meeting with Kim Jong Un
- @NBCPolitics: “JUST IN: Yonhap news agency reports that South Korea’s president is convening meeting with top security officials after President Trump’s North Korea announcement, and government says it is ‘trying to figure out what President Trump’s intention is and the exact meaning of it.'” (Twitter thread here.)
This is a developing news story so… stay tuned, I guess? I don’t expect the news to get better.
Update (1:10pm)
SCOOP: Trump ordered White House to release the Kim letter without telling global allies; Officials said the president—who has complained he wasn’t informed about the Kim-Xi meeting—was concerned about leaks.https://t.co/CtyowOdOeF via @WSJ— Michael C. Bender (@MichaelCBender) May 24, 2018
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Photo: Donald Trump, by Gage Skidmore. (Source & licensing.)
Notes & Thoughts 